VERÖFFENTLICHT IN DIVERSEN MEDIEN IN AUGUST 2005
OfficialWire, NY - 29 Aug 2005
CIA Faked Lockerbie 'Evidence'
Former Scottish police chief confirms U.S. wrote the script to incriminate Libya
by Jennifer Monroe
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND -- (OfficialWire) -- 08/29/05 -- A retired Scottish police officer has come forward to provide a signed statement corroborating the belief that vital evidence used to convict Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi for mass murder in 2001 was fabricated.
Al-Megrahi was found guilty for the murder of 270 people who died when on December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland.
Al-Megrahi was eventually convicted after the prosecution successfully argued that he had placed the explosive, hidden in a suitcase, on a flight from Malta to Frankfurt, where it was transferred onto the Pan Am plane to New York via Heathrow.
Speaking to investigative reporter Ian Ferguson in March 2000, Noel Koch, who headed anti-terrorism efforts for the U.S. Defense Department from 1981 to 1986 said: It was decided by the two governments, by the United States and the United Kingdom, that Libya had been responsible for the bombing of Pan Am 103. "I have never believed that, and I don't believe the case will stand against the Libyans."
While the identity of the retired officer has not yet been made public, it is known that he was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland (ACPOS), and therefore achieved the rank of assistant chief constable at least.
In 2003, a retired CIA officer made a statement to Al-Megrahi's lawyers in which he said evidence against their client had been planted.
It has long been rumored that the key piece of evidence, a fragment of circuit board from a timing device that implicated Libya, had been planted by U.S. agents for political reasons.
In September 2003, the UN Security Council lifted sanctions against Libya, which allowed the release of up to $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 people killed. Libya paid each family $8 million in compensation and was scheduled to pay a further $2 million to each of the victims' families. But because the U.S. State Department refused to remove Libya from a list of states thought to support international terrorism Libyan officials, in April 2005, refused to make the final payment for each family.
Perhaps Libya will now seek to recover the initial $2.1 billion paid since it appears they were fit up for the job.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://news.baou.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=20460
BBC News, UK - 18.Aug.2005
'Doubts' over Lockerbie evidence
Fresh doubts have emerged over the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber, BBC Scotland has learned.
The evidence of a major prosecution witness who testified during the trial of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi has been called into question.
Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001
Three men who forensic scientist Alan Feraday gave evidence against have since had their convictions quashed.
BBC Scotland understands papers on one case have gone to the commission reviewing Megrahi's conviction.
Mr Feraday is now retired after 42 years' experience in explosives.
Review commission
He told the Lockerbie trial he was in no doubt that a circuit board fragment found after the disaster was part of the detonator.
The trial judges accepted his conclusion.
However, in three separate cases men against whom Mr Feraday gave evidence have now had their convictions overturned.
The bombing claimed the lives of 270 people
After the first case, which took place seven years before the Lockerbie trial, the Lord Chief Justice said Mr Feraday should not be allowed to present himself as an expert in the field of electronics.
The latest case to be quashed happened just last month.
Papers relating to the most recent case have now been sent to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which is looking at the Lockerbie bomber's conviction.
The commission will consider whether the Lockerbie trial judges should have given so much weight to Mr Feraday's evidence.
Gerry Brown, of the Law Society of Scotland, said expert witnesses were "essential" in cases like the Lockerbie trial.
If one finds that three cases have been overturned, it rather undermines one's confidence
Dr Jim Swire
Victim's relative
"It is like a string of beads," he told BBC Radio Scotland.
"You have to have the beads held together by string, and if the string is weak at one point the beads fall to the ground.
"That is possibly the situation here, and that is probably what is being investigated now by the commission."
Solicitor Eddie McKechnie, who represents Megrahi, said the information raised "serious issues" about the conviction.
"It is a factor that I take very seriously into account on behalf of Mr Megrahi," he said.
'Not satisfied'
"One would have thought that when a professional and a government forensic expert is impugned in a number of cases... then serious issues arise."
Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, said: "I'm personally not satisfied of Mr Megrahi's guilt.
"I emerged (from the trial) riddled with doubts. This will of course augment them.
I think it is a bit of a belated and half-hearted attempt
Jody Flowers
Relative's lawyer
"If one finds that three cases have been overturned, it rather undermines one's confidence."
However, American lawyer Jody Flowers - who represents one woman whose husband died in the bombing - said she thought the latest claims were "much ado about nothing".
"I don't think it has much impact at all. I think it is a bit of a belated and half-hearted attempt," she said.
"Any serious challenge to Mr Feraday's credibility or the specifics of his testimony would have been raised at the trial or the appeal, and they were not.
"The court accepted his testimony as reliable."
Gave evidence
She said he was a "highly qualified individual" whose evidence had been corroborated by others.
Ms Flowers said one of the cases in question had been five years before the Lockerbie explosion - and 16 years before he gave evidence in the trial.
Mr Feraday has been invited to comment but has so far declined.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/4164422.stm
Scotsman, United Kingdom - 27 Aug 2005
Police chief- Lockerbie evidence was faked
MARCELLO MEGA
A FORMER Scottish police chief has given lawyers a signed statement claiming that key evidence in the Lockerbie bombing trial was fabricated.
The retired officer - of assistant chief constable rank or higher - has testified that the CIA planted the tiny fragment of circuit board crucial in convicting a Libyan for the 1989 mass murder of 270 people.
The police chief, whose identity has not yet been revealed, gave the statement to lawyers representing Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, currently serving a life sentence in Greenock Prison.
The evidence will form a crucial part of Megrahi's attempt to have a retrial ordered by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). The claims pose a potentially devastating threat to the reputation of the entire Scottish legal system.
The officer, who was a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, is supporting earlier claims by a former CIA agent that his bosses "wrote the script" to incriminate Libya.
Last night, George Esson, who was Chief Constable of Dumfries and Galloway when Megrahi was indicted for mass murder, confirmed he was aware of the development.
But Esson, who retired in 1994, questioned the officer's motives. He said: "Any police officer who believed they had knowledge of any element of fabrication in any criminal case would have a duty to act on that. Failure to do so would call into question their integrity, and I can't help but question their motive for raising the matter now."
Other important questions remain unanswered, such as how the officer learned of the alleged conspiracy and whether he was directly involved in the inquiry. But sources close to Megrahi's legal team believe they may have finally discovered the evidence that could demolish the case against him.
An insider told Scotland on Sunday that the retired officer approached them after Megrahi's appeal - before a bench of five Scottish judges - was dismissed in 2002.
The insider said: "He said he believed he had crucial information. A meeting was set up and he gave a statement that supported the long-standing rumours that the key piece of evidence, a fragment of circuit board from a timing device that implicated Libya, had been planted by US agents.
"Asked why he had not come forward before, he admitted he'd been wary of breaking ranks, afraid of being vilified.
"He also said that at the time he became aware of the matter, no one really believed there would ever be a trial. When it did come about, he believed both accused would be acquitted. When Megrahi was convicted, he told himself he'd be cleared at appeal."
The source added: "When that also failed, he explained he felt he had to come forward.
"He has confirmed that parts of the case were fabricated and that evidence was planted. At first he requested anonymity, but has backed down and will be identified if and when the case returns to the appeal court."
The vital evidence that linked the bombing of Pan Am 103 to Megrahi was a tiny fragment of circuit board which investigators found in a wooded area many miles from Lockerbie months after the atrocity.
The fragment was later identified by the FBI's Thomas Thurman as being part of a sophisticated timer device used to detonate explosives, and manufactured by the Swiss firm Mebo, which supplied it only to Libya and the East German Stasi.
At one time, Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence agent, was such a regular visitor to Mebo that he had his own office in the firm's headquarters.
The fragment of circuit board therefore enabled Libya - and Megrahi - to be placed at the heart of the investigation. However, Thurman was later unmasked as a fraud who had given false evidence in American murder trials, and it emerged that he had little in the way of scientific qualifications.
Then, in 2003, a retired CIA officer gave a statement to Megrahi's lawyers in which he alleged evidence had been planted.
The decision of a former Scottish police chief to back this claim could add enormous weight to what has previously been dismissed as a wild conspiracy theory. It has long been rumoured the fragment was planted to implicate Libya for political reasons.
The first suspects in the case were the Syrian-led Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), a terror group backed by Iranian cash. But the first Gulf War altered diplomatic relations with Middle East nations, and Libya became the pariah state.
Following the trial, legal observers from around the world, including senior United Nations officials, expressed disquiet about the verdict and the conduct of the proceedings at Camp Zeist, Holland. Those doubts were first fuelled when internal documents emerged from the offices of the US Defence Intelligence Agency. Dated 1994, more than two years after the Libyans were identified to the world as the bombers, they still described the PFLP-GC as the Lockerbie bombers.
A source close to Megrahi's defence said: "Britain and the US were telling the world it was Libya, but in their private communications they acknowledged that they knew it was the PFLP-GC.
"The case is starting to unravel largely because when they wrote the script, they never expected to have to act it out. Nobody expected agreement for a trial to be reached, but it was, and in preparing a manufactured case, mistakes were made."
Dr Jim Swire, who has publicly expressed his belief in Megrahi's innocence, said it was quite right that all relevant information now be put to the SCCRC.
Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed in the atrocity, said last night: "I am aware that there have been doubts about how some of the evidence in the case came to be presented in court.
"It is in all our interests that areas of doubt are thoroughly examined."
A spokeswoman for the Crown Office said: "As this case is currently being examined by the SCCRC, it would be inappropriate to comment."
No one from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland was available to comment.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1855852005
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom - 20 Aug 2005
Trial doubts may free Lockerbie Libyan
By Toby Harnden
(Filed: 21/08/2005)
The Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in which 270 people died could be freed after new doubts emerged about an expert witness who gave crucial evidence at his trial.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in 2001 at a special Scottish court in Holland after Allen Feraday told judges that a fragment of a circuit board found in the wreckage was part of the bomb's detonator.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi
Now, however, papers have been sent to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which was already examining documents from Megrahi's trial, after a conviction in a third case involving Mr Feraday's expert evidence was quashed. The commission will decide if an appeal should be heard.
With Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, now no longer a pariah in the eyes of Britain after he renounced weapons of mass destruction, the political climate for a successful appeal is relatively benign. Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, ruled that the conviction of Hassan Assali, 53, another Libyan, on terrorist conspiracy charges was unsafe. Mr Assali's factory was raided in 1984 and timing devices were seized.
Mr Feraday, the prosecution's only expert witness, said there was no lawful purpose for the devices, which Mr Assali claimed were for domestic use. Mr Assali served six and a half years of a nine-year sentence.
Mr Feraday, the former head of the forensic explosives laboratory at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in Kent, now retired after 42 years' distinguished work, was an expert witness in two other cases in which the convictions were later quashed.
A Crown Office spokesman, however, said the case did not depend solely on the evidence of Mr Feraday and that a number of other expert witnesses had also testified.
Mr Feraday said: "I'm taking legal advice and shan't be talking to anybody."
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/21/nlocker21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/08/21/ixhome.html
The MEBO Inc.-defence team and Edwin Bollier, VR
E-mail: mahnaz@bluewin.ch - URL: http://www.mebocom-defilee.ch
C COPYRIGHT EDWIN & MAHNAZ BOLLIER-TAVAKOLI 8047 ZüRICH 14.JUNI 2005
MAHNAZ BOLLIER-TAVAKOLI, PRIVAT INVESTIGATOR, FACT-FINDING COMMITTEE
E-mail: mahnaz@bluewin.ch - URL: http://www.lockerbie.ch